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Speed of Service: 212.71 seconds

Order Accuracy: 90.4%

What are your tips for improving speed of service at Taco Bell?

First, ensure restaurants have the latest technology and the right tools in place to measure and track key performance metrics.

Second, ensure the restaurant operating system and kitchen are set up to support the menu we want to deliver.

Finally, create and reinforce a culture around speed, which includes recognizing great performers and measuring actual throughput. 

What are your tips for improving order accuracy at Taco Bell?

Ensure each team member understands their role in the take/make/serve process to ensure accuracy and efficiency. 

Then standardize product builds to create a repeatable process, which is especially important at Taco Bell, knowing our team members are tasked with learning a new limited-time offer product every five to eight weeks on top of our core menu. Finally, confirm merchandising and packaging is intuitive to both consumers and team members.

Besides speed and accuracy, what’s the most critical factor to Taco Bell’s drive-thru success?

Making sure the drive-thru experience is customer-friendly and with a standardized design that lends itself to speed and consistency no matter which restaurant you’re visiting is crucial to our success. We’re on track to grow to 8,000 stores in the U.S. by 2022, so we want to make sure we maintain this consistency as we enter new markets. 

What’s one innovation that you think is going to change the future of drive thru?

Two of the main innovations I see changing the future of drive thru that kind of go hand-in-hand are voice recognition and RFID (radio frequency identification) at the order point. These capabilities will open up endless opportunities to improve the customer and team-member experiences in the drive thru, along with improving accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

—Mike Grams / COO

Customer Experience, Drive Thru, Fast Food, Ordering, Special Reports, Taco Bell